Time switch mechanism



JaIn. ,16; 1934 R. PUDELKO 1,943,373

TIME SWITCH MECHANISM Filed July 10. 1929 INVENTOR yMM Patented Jan. 16, 1934 UNITED STATES TIME SWITCH MECHANISM Riccard Pudelko, Zug, Switzerland, assignor to Landis & Gyr, A-G., a joint-stock company of Switzerland Application July 10, 1929, Serial No. 377,257, and in Switzerland July 12, 1928 9 Claims.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in time switching mechanism, and more particularly to a time switch in which the time of the switching operation is automatically varied from day to day.

Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part hereinafter and in part will be obvious herefrom, or may be learned by practice with the invention, the same being realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention consists in the novel parts, con-. struction, arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and described.

The accompanying drawing, referred to herein and constituting a part hereof, illustrates one embodiment of the invention, and together with the description, serves to explain the principles of the invention.

Of the drawing:--

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a time switch mechanism embodying the present invention, certain parts being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation looking from the left of Fig. 1;

Figs. 3 and 4 are details of a portion of the switch actuating mechanism taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 5; and,

Fig. 5 is a detail vertical section taken on the line 55 of Figure 3;

Fig. 6 is a detail vertical section taken on line 6--6 of Fig. 2.

The present preferred embodiment of the invention consists of a clock mechanism and a switch operated by pins or other actuating devices controlled by the clock mechanism. Certain of said pins are adapted to close the switch, the others to open the switch and additional means are provided for automatically varying the time actuating of the switch by certain of the pins, the variation preferably being in accordance with the setting or rising of the sun. According to the present invention, means are provided for causing the switching operations to be omitted when the automatically variable switch operating member is in certain of its positions, thereby preventing unnecessary consumption of current. The present invention is an improvement upon the general type of mechanism shown and described in the patent to Josef Mettler, No.

My invention finds a large field of usefulness in connection with the multiple-tariff metering of electricity, as well as in controlling street and store lighting circuits, and efiects a considerable saving in the energy consumed by reason of its elimination of unnecessary switching operations.

As an example of the use and operation of the present embodiment of the invention, the following may be given: At a given place, the time of sunrise varies from 4:25 A. M. to 9:20 A. M. while the time of sunset varies from 3:25 P. M. to 8:25 P. M. In such a locality, it may be desired to turn the street lights on at sunset, off at midnight, on again at 4:30 A. M. and off at sunrise after which the cycle is repeated. With the present invention, the fixed or manually varied switching times do not interfere with the seasonably varied times, and when there is less than a predetermined time between a fixed and a variable switching time, the switching operations are omitted. Thus, should the'fixed switching-on time be at 4:30 A. M., the morning switching-on, and consequently the sunrise switching-off, would be omitted, as these operations are unnecessary in view of the short period'for which the switch would be on. The manually varied switching times are not ordinarily changed but serve to permit adaptation of the mechanism to suit local conditions at the time of installation.

It will be understood that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description as well are explanatory of the invention, but are not restrictive thereof.

In the present embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing, the time switching mechanism is shown as connected with a conventional self-winding clock mechanism of the general Landis 8; Gyr type, in which an induction motor 10 is connected with spring drum 11 by gearing and continually winds the spring in drum 11. The drum 11 is connected through gearing 12 with suitable escapement mechanism 13, and also is mounted on shaft 14 carrying pinion l5 meshing with gear 16 rotatably mounted on shaft 17 and rigid with respect to day disc 18. Pointer 19 is rigid on shaft 17, and as the disc 18 rotates in a clockwise direction, the pointer 19 points to one of the graduations on the disc 18 showing the correct time. For greater clearness in the drawing, pointer 19 is shown displaced from its normal position, and normally, the outer end of pointer 19 lies directly over shaft 25.

A suitable switch is provided and in the present embodiment comprises a pair of spring mounted contacts 20, insulated from each other and each provided with a stop member 21 to limit th ir movement. The upper spring 22 is provided with an upturned end 23 cooperating with a cam 24 rotatably mounted on shaft 25, to which shaft is rigidly secured, a star raving its alternate arms 26, 27 in different planes. As the star is turned cam 24 causes alternate closing and opening of the switch contacts. For holding cam 24 in the position to which it is moved, there is provided a cam 28 cooperating with spring pressed roller 30.

For actuating the switch, there are provided one or more variably positionable clips 31 re movably mounted on the edge of day disc 18 for manually varying the time of the switching operation, and held in position by set screws 32 so that the position of the clips can be varied at will. On their rear side, these clips are provided with switch actuating pins of one or the other of two lengths. As shown in the accompanying drawing, the longer pins 33, cooperate with star arms 26 to close the switch and the shorter pins 34 cooperate with arms 27 only when the switch is in closed position and open the switch.

Means are provided for automatically varying the time of certain of the switching operations in accordance with some continuously varying function of time, such as the setting or rising of the sun, and, as embodied, one or more of levers 35 carrying switch operating pins are loosely and rotatably mounted on sleeve 36 and provided at their outer ends with a slot 37 concentric with sleeve 36, in which slot pin 33 or 34 can be variably positioned to vary the time of operation of the switch without relative movement of the arms 35 with respect to day disc 18. For moving these arms automatically, for instance, in accordance with the setting and/or rising of the sun, the arms are formed. with gear teeth, concentric with the shaft on which they rotate, these teeth meshing with a series of teeth on a pivotally mounted segment as shown in detail in the prior patent to Josef Mettler, above re ferred to. This segment also carries a cam follower pressed into engagement with cam 38 by means of a suitable helical spring. Cam 38 is rotatably mounted on sleeve 36 and has fixedly secured to one face a gear 39 meshing with pinion 40 mounted on stub shaft 41 on pointer 19. Fixed to pinion 4-9 and rotatable on shaft 41 is a second pinion 42 meshing with gear 43 frictionally held on sleeve 36, gear 43 being provided with a suitably different number of teeth than gear 39 to effect a relative movement between cam 38 and day disc 18 as the disc rotates, thereby relatively advancing or retarding the cam controlling lever. With a suitably designed cam 38, the positional relation of the levers 35 is so changed as to cause the automatically controlled switching operations to occur at a different time each day, varying in accordance with the setting or rising of the sun. As is usual with this general type of device, switch actuating members 31 and 33 are variably positionable around the periphery of disc 18 and by loosening screw 32 or 50 may be manually moved to the desired position. Switch actuating members 34 are automatically moved relatively to the disc 18 and in accordance with changes in the rising and setting of the sun.

Means are also provided for causing the omission of the switching operation when the automatically variable switching operation would occur within a relatively short predetermined time of the manually variable switching operation, for instance, under most conditions when the manually variable switching operation occurs at 5:00 A. M., and the reverse, automatically controlled switching operation is set to occur at 5:30 A. li-L, there is very little need for the switching operation to take place and, the means about to be described cause the omission of the switching operations. As embodied, the automatically controlled switching pin is mounted on a lever 45 pivoted on a carrier 46 by means of pin 47 and the inclined slot 48. Carrier 46 is slotted at 49 and provided with set screw 50 101 clamping the carrier over the edge of day disc 18, thereby allowing the position of the pin to be varied relative to the disc. A spring 51 connected with lever 45 and lying within recess 52 tends to pull the lever to the left and draw down (Fig. 3) thereby maintaining this pin 33 in switch operating position with its free end held by stop 53 on carrier 46. One of the automatically variable levers 35 is formed with an inclined face 54 and as it approaches too closely pin 33, the inclined face contacts with in 33 on lever 45 pushing lever 45 to the right (Fi 3) freeing it from stop 53 and raising pin 33 against the tension of spring 51 (Fig. 4) in which position this pin 33 no longer contacts with star arm 26 as the disc 18 rotates and consequently no switching operation results, As the star is not turned, the adjacent pin 34 passes beneath the star arm 27 as it reaches operating position, but does not contact with the star arm 27. By this means, the switching operation is omitted.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific mechanisms shown and described, but departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.

What I claim is:

1. In a time switch mechanism, a switch, a clock mechanism, a switch operating member driven by said clock mechanism for operating the switch each day in accordance with the setting or rising of the sun, a second switch operating member cooperating with the first member in certain positions and moved out of switch operating position by said first member.

2. In a time switch mechanism, a switch, a clock mechanism, a switch operating member driven by said clock mechanism for operating the switch at varying times in accordance with the setting of the sun, a second switch operating member, means for moving one of said members relatively to the other and cooperating means operated by one of said members for preventing operation of said switch operating member in certain relative positions of said members.

3. In a time-switch mechanism, a switch, clock mechanism having a rotatable disc, a plurality of switch actuating members movable with the disc for opening and closing the switch, a cam driven by the clock mechanism, means connecting the cam with one of said members for variably positioning the member relative to the other members and means for preventing actuation of the switch when the variably positionable member too closely approaches another member.

4. In a time-switch mechanism, a switch, clock controlled means for closing the switch and for opening the switch thereafter, means for continually changing the time of the switching opating pins, one of said pins adapted to close the switch, the other to open the switch, means for continuously varying the relative position of the pins, and means for moving one of the pins out of switch operating position when it approaches the other pin.

6. In a time-switch mechanism, the combination of a pair of switch operating pins mounted on separate levers and driven by a clock mechanism, means for changing the relative position of the pins and means on one of said levers for moving the pin carried by the other out of switch operating position.

'7. In a time-switch mechanism, a switch, clock controlled actuating means for the switch, a second clock controlled actuating means for the switch variably positionable with respect to the first, and means for automatically rendering said actuating means inoperative under certain conditions of operation;

8. In a time-switch mechanism, clock mechanism, a switch, clock controlled actuating means for the switch, a second clock controlled actuating means for the switch, means for variably positioning one of said actuating means in accordance with a function of the time measured by the clock and means for automatically rendering said actuating means inoperative when said actuating members are in certain relative positional relation to each other.

9. In a time-switch mechanism, a switch, clock mechanism having a rotatable disc, a plurality of switch actuating members movable with the disc, means for variably positioning one of said members with respect to the others in accordance with a function of the time measured by the clock and means for preventing operation of the switch when said variably positionable member closely approaches another of said members.

RICCARD PUDELKO. 

